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Turkey Rejects Baghdad's Demand To Withdraw Troops From Northern Iraq
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has told the Iraqi government that Ankara will not withdraw its ground troops from northern Iraq for now.
Cavusoglu made the remarks in a phone call to Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari on December 8, just hours after Baghdad's deadline for a Turkish withdrawal expired.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi has said Turkish troops entered Iraq without permission and warned that Baghdad would seek UN Security Council action if those forces did not start to withdraw by the end of December 7.
Cavusoglu said Ankara sent military forces near the city Mosul on December 3 to protect and replace Turkish soldiers already deployed there.
Turkey says its soldiers are training Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga and Sunni Arab tribal fighters around Mosul ahead of an expected offensive aimed at taking the city back from the Islamic State militants who have occupied the city since the summer of 2014.
On December 7, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told Abadi in a letter that Ankara would halt further deployments into Iraq until Baghdad's "sensitivities" were placated.
Russia's Interfax news agency has quoted Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu as saying that Ankara is ready for talks with Russia but will not allow Moscow to impose its will.
"Russia needs to understand one thing, this is a border between Turkey and Syria and those who are on the other side of the border are our brothers. Defending their rights is our obligation, just as defending our citizens is our obligation," Davutoglu told local media today, according to Interfax.
Davutoglu was likely referring to Syrian Turkomans, ethnic Turks living in northern Syria. Turkey accused Russia of bombing Turkoman rebel groups along the Syrian-Turkish border shortly before the November 24 downing by the Turkish air force of a Russian Su-24 jet.
On December 4, Turkish media reported that Russia had begun targeting the Turkoman region of Bayırbucak in northern Syria, with sources telling the Daily Sabah news site that Russia had hit eight different positions around Syria's Mount Turkmen including Karamanlı, Gebere and Kinsibbe villages.
Iraqi forces have taken large parts of Ramadi city from IS militants, AFP is reporting, citing Iraqi officials.
Ramadi, the capital of Iraq's Anbar province, fell to IS in May.
The Kululiraq Iraqi news website has more details of the latest developments in the battle against IS in the Ramadi, the capital of Iraq's Anbar province.
The news site quotes a senior military source as saying that Iraqi government forces have liberated the southern Ramadi neighborhood of Tameem.
Russian Foreign Ministry: Turkish Troop Deployment In Iraq 'Illegal'
Turkey's deployment of troops into Iraqi territory without Baghdad's permission is illegal, Russia's Foreign Ministry has said.
"An additional and very serious source of tension is the illegal presence of Turkish troops on Iraqi territory near the city of Mosul, which were deployed there without the appropriate approach to or approval of the lawful Iraqi government. We consider such presence as unacceptable," the Ministry said in a statement.
Russia's Foreign Ministry has said that it is "seriously concerned" about reports that the U.S.-led coalition in Syria struck a Syrian army base in Deir Ezzor province on December 6, and that a separate coalition strike had allegedly hit civilians in northeastern Syria.
The coalition has denied accusations by Syria that it struck the army base, while a spokesman for U.S. Central Command said yesterday that the military is investigating allegations that it struck civilians in the northeastern Syrian village of Al-Khan.
In a statement published on its website today, the Foreign Ministry said that "In general, these incidents indicate that the situation on the front lines of the war against the so-called Islamic State in Syria and Iraq is heating up."
AFP has more photos of the Eagles of Death Metal band, who returned to the Bataclan theater in Paris to pay respects to the 130 people killed in the November 13 attacks in the city.
There could be an international meeting on Syria held in New York next week, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said today after speaking with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
Kerry said the meeting depends in part on the outcome of the Saudi-led conference of Syrian opposition representatives that began today in Riyadh.
A Russian naval ship that passed through Istanbul on Sunday did not contravene "a single article of the Montreux Convention," a spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry has said.
Turkey accused Russia of a "provocation" after the large Russian landing ship Caesar Kunikov passed through the Bosphorus Strait on December 6 while a Russian serviceman allegedly holding a rocket launcher stood on deck.
Ankara summoned the Russian ambassador over the incident and said it constituted an act against the Montreux Convention, referring to the 1936 treaty regulating the transit of naval warships through the Bosphorus Strait and the Dardanelles.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that "protection of a vessel is the legal right of any crew."
"In Ankara, this event was for some reason treated as a 'provocation and constituting a threat'. Our ambassador was told by the Turkish Foreign Ministry of the 'concern of the Turkish side'. According to Turkish diplomats, local media [said] the incident apparently caused 'a deeply indignant response'," Zakharova said.
Russia's TASS news agency has more on Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova's comments about Sunday's incident over the Russian landing ship passing through the Bosphorus with a soldier carrying a missile launcher on deck.
Zakharova said that Ankara had not given any specific reason why this incident had violated the Montreux Convention.
"When our diplomats asked the Turkish side what specifically they saw as a violation, we didn't hear anything except abstract references to 'context and the philosophy of international legal norms'," Zakharova was quoted as saying.